


My Papa Wants to Know...

by JenniM777



Series: Klance AU Month [25]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-08 00:17:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17970821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JenniM777/pseuds/JenniM777
Summary: Prompt: Klance AU Month - day 25 Neighbors





	My Papa Wants to Know...

**Author's Note:**

> There's nothing graphic but there is some mentions of a dog biting a small child just in case it causes a trigger for some people. Other than that this is just some self-indulgent fluff.

Keith sighed and looked at the small house. The yard was overgrown with weeds, the shutters needed repairing, the roof was missing some shingles, and it could use a completely fresh coat of paint all over. But he had gotten the house far cheaper than he was expecting and even with the few cosmetic repairs, the house was fairly spacious and closer to his new job. He pulled his suitcase behind him and made his way to the front door and made his way into his home.

Over the next couple of weeks Keith stayed busy. Between work and the minor repairs on his house he hadn’t had time to check out the neighborhood or the small town nearby other than to grab a few groceries or some take-out. He was inside putting together a small desk he was going to be using in one of the spare rooms for his office when he heard a dog barking and then a small child screaming. Without stopping to think he bolted from his house and towards the noise. Before he could think about whether or not he should, Keith grabbed the dog around its neck and threw him bodily away from the small child that was in his yard. Before the dog could get its bearings Keith grabbed the child and held her to his chest and braced himself as the dog came barreling towards him. He landed a hard kick to the dog and several people came running to get the dog away from him and the girl in his arms.

The next few minutes were chaos. Animal control was called to pick up the dog. A large man approached Keith and tried to pry the small girl from his arms but she clung to Keith’s neck and crying for her papa over and over. She had a several bites on one of her arms and she was shaking. Keith learned the large guy was named Hunk and he was not the girl’s papa. He also found out the small girl’s name was Arianna and her papa lived next door to Keith. Hunk lived across the street and was good friends with Keith’s neighbor, Lance. Since Arianna wasn’t letting go of Keith anytime soon Hunk set out to find Lance. Before Hunk could make it across the street Lance was running out of the house looking for Arianna. He was shaking as he took her from Keith. It turns out Arianna had slipped out while Lance was putting away laundry and he had thought she was hiding somewhere in the house before he realized she had managed to get outside. Lance bundled up his daughter and took her to the ER to get her arm checked out thanking Keith and Hunk and everyone else profusely for helping his daughter.

As Keith watches Lance pull out of his driveway he feels a hand on his shoulder and he’s being handed a beer. He looks up to see Hunk with a kind smile on his face and the adrenaline from the past few minutes leaves his body and he takes a big swig of the beer in his hands. He follows Hunk to the house across the street and he’s introduced to Hunk’s wife Shay, another neighbor Katie or Pidge as she prefers to be called, and a few others that saw the whole incident. It’s the first time he’s had a chance to get to know his neighbors and it sucks that it was under these circumstances.

Its several hours later when Keith is back home sitting on his small porch swing when headlights flash across his face and a car pulls in next door. He watches as Lance opens the back driver side door and lifts out Arianna. Her arm is bandaged and she’s apparently asleep as Lance tucks her gently against his chest and brings her inside. Keith wants to go over and ask how she’s doing but he decides against. He’s sure Lance is exhausted and wants to just get some rest after that harrowing experience.

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

Keith has been home for all of two minutes and has his shoes kicked off and sinks into his couch when he hears a knock at his front door. He groans a bit but gets up and expects to see either Hunk or Pidge but he’s shocked when he’s met with a pair of bright blue eyes and a handsomely tanned face. But it’s the small girl with white-blond bouncy curls that gets his attention. He’s caught a bit off guard when a hand is held out in front of him, “I haven’t had a chance to officially introduce myself yet. I’m Lance and this is Arianna. We just wanted to thank you for the other day.”

Keith just stands with his mouth open for a few minutes before his brain finally catches up. “Sorry, sorry. I’m Keith. Please, come in. Can I get you something to drink? A soda? Water?”

Lance just smiles, “Water is fine.”

Arianna is in her dad’s arms and she’s resting a head on his shoulder but peaking at Keith every now and then. Keith can’t help but smile at her, she’s really cute. Lance shifts Arianna and smiles, “Thank you again for everything. Hunk told me how you yanked that dog away from Ari.”

“It was no big deal. I’m just glad she’s ok.”

Lance nodded, “I can’t imagine what you must think of me, letting her slip out of my sight like that.”

Keith frowned at the nervousness in Lance’s voice, “Hey, no. Look I don’t have kids so I can’t judge. And I don’t know your situation but accidents happen.”

Lance seems to relax after that. Keith finds out Arianna is not biologically his daughter. His best friend and her husband were killed in a car accident and Lance was the godfather and now her official guardian. He had known from the beginning that Allura was always going to make sure Lance would be Arianna’s guardian but he never expected it to actually happen. The two chatted for hours and when Lance finally stood up to leave Keith was pleasantly surprised when Arianna gave him a hug goodbye.

Over the next couple of years Keith and Lance develop a close friendship and Arianna has grown attached to Keith as well. The two of them are at each other’s house constantly. Keith is at every one of Arianna’s birthday parties, he’s invited to all of her school functions, and he and Lance exchange Christmas and birthday gifts as well.

It’s not until Keith is at Lance’s house on a Saturday when things come to a head. All of Lance’s family is there and many of the neighbors are there as well. It’s a warm spring day and the kids are running through the yard, food is laid out on tables and everyone has a cold drink of some sort in their hands. Keith is chatting with Lance’s sister Veronica when Arianna asks about spending the night with Nadia and Sylvio. Veronica is laughing and ruffles Ari’s hair, “I’m not your parent don’t ask me!”

And for some reason Ari turns her big blue eyes to Keith, “Can I go dad please?”

Keith feels as if everything has stopped. He’s no longer breathing, every conversation has come to a complete halt and all eyes are on him. He doesn’t know where this came from, it’s not like he’s dating Lance and Ari has never called him anything other than Mr. Keith before. He swallows hard and puts a hand on her shoulder, “Go ask your papa ok?”

Keith watches as Ari runs off to find Lance, unaware of the turmoil she’s caused. Keith knows his face must be a thousand shades of red when he looks up and finds Veronica giving him a calculated look. Keith panics, “I…I’m not….I should….not feeling well…I’m just gonna go.”

Keith turns and walks the short distance to his house. He hears Lance calling after him but he just keeps going. He can’t do this. He’s not ready to confront something he’s not even sure is there. Oh he knows just how deep his own feelings run and not just for Arianna but for Lance as well. Over the years he’s developed some serious feelings for Lance and he would do anything for both Lance and Ari. But he has never acted on those feelings. He can’t. For one it wouldn’t be fair to Lance, he has to put Ari first and Keith is ok with that. He gets it.

He’s made it to the front door when Lance grabs his arm, “Keith what’s going on? Veronica said you don’t feel well.”

Keith doesn’t turn around, “Yea, I think maybe I just drank too much or something.”

Lance squeezes Keith’s arm, “You barely had three drinks. Come on Keith what’s going on?”

Keith is shaking and he knows Lance can feel it with the grip he has on his arm, “It’s nothing ok, I just…I need a few minutes alone.”

And if things couldn’t get any worse Ari is standing in front of Keith. She has tears in her eyes and Lance is looking between the two of them with a confused look. Her voice is barely a whisper and there’s a hint of tears and Keith’s heart is breaking to hear her sound so sad, “Mr. Keith, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you mad.”

Keith kneels down and wipes a tear that’s falling from Ari’s eye, “Oh sweetheart, I’m not mad. I’m just not feeling good all of a sudden.”

Ari’s bottom lip starts to tremble, “Nadia said you left because I accidently called you dad. I didn’t mean to say it out loud Mr. Keith. It’s just sometimes I daydream about you and papa living together and calling you dad because I just love you so much because you saved me from that dog and you’re always at my birthdays and next to papa you give the best presents.”

Keith pulled Ari into his arms, “I’m not mad. And that’s a nice thing to daydream about. It makes me happy that you think such nice things about me.”

He held onto Ari until she stopped crying. He didn’t dare to look at Lance. He was too afraid to see his face when he realized his little girl wanted Keith to be her dad. When Ari was finally reassured that Keith wasn’t mad and everything was ok she headed back next door. Lance followed Keith inside his house, “Please tell me that is not the reason you left.”

Keith whirled around, “Look Lance, I meant it when I said I’m not mad at Ari. She’s just a little girl and little girls dream about having two parents, but what the hell do you think your family is going to think of me? We aren’t even together, and yes we’ve known each other for the past six years but having your daughter call your neighbor ‘dad’ does not seem normal.”

“Is that what’s bothering you? Would it be ok if we were together? Hell Keith, she calls Hunk and Shay her aunt and uncle. She calls Pidge her aunt Katie. She’s not related to any of them and I’m not dating any of them either.”

Keith feels his temper just barely under the surface, “She’s not looking to them as a parent either. It’s different Lance. I shouldn’t … it’s not fair to her if you do find someone to date and she thinks of me that way. I’ll just back off.”

“So you’re just going to distance yourself from me. You’re not doing anyone any favors by doing that Keith. If anything you’re only going to hurt Ari. You just told her you weren’t mad at her for this but you’re punishing her by distancing yourself. Is that the kind of message you want to send to her?”

Keith feels his resolve starting to crumble, “You know I don’t want to ever hurt Ari, but its more than that and I think you know that.”

Lance takes deep breath, “So you’re gonna throw our friendship away because of this? You’re just gonna push me away because Arianna called you dad and it bothers you because we aren’t together? God Keith you are such an idiot.”

Before Keith could even ask what Lance meant by that he was pushed against a wall and Lance was kissing him hard. There was a desperate urgency in that kiss and there were hands in his hair and on his back and when Keith’s senses finally caught up Lance was pulling away. Keith just stared at Lance and let out a soft “oh!”

Lance pushed his forehead against Keith’s, “Yea, ‘oh’ you big idiot. I’ve wanted to make a move on you for years and thought you didn’t feel the same.”

Keith closed his eyes, “I never wanted to get in the way of you taking care of Arianna. I knew she would always come first no matter what.”

Lance pressed a soft kiss to Keith’s lips, “Yea well, just this once I want to put myself first and get what I want.”

Keith felt himself smile, “And what do you want?”

Lance smiled back and pressed another kiss to Keith’s lips. “You.”

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

Keith is laying in bed when the door to the bedroom is flung open and a young girl with white-blond curls jumps on top of him, “Oh my god Ari!”

She grins at him, “It’s my birthday today Mr. Keith!”

He sits up and gives her a kiss on her forehead. “It sure is.” She pulls away and tugs on Keith’s hand, “Papa says I can miss school today and he’s taking me to the zoo! And after we get to have cake and ice cream! Are you coming with us?”

Keith pretends to think about his answer, “I don’t know. I’m not sure how I feel about all those smelly animals at the zoo.”

“Pleeeeeeeease Mr. Keith! Pleaaaase!!!”

Keith grins and gives her another kiss on her forehead, “Ok, let me get ready.”

Ari runs out of the room with a loud whoop. Keith grabs some clothes and takes a quick shower. When he makes his way to the small kitchen Lance is there and hands him a cup of coffee and a kiss to his cheek. “Glad you decided to join us this morning babe.”

Keith gives a dramatic sigh, something he’s learned from both Lance and Ari, “It was a close call but in the end I couldn’t tell the birthday girl no.”

Later that afternoon Keith is watching as Lance’s mom and sisters are cleaning up after Ari’s party. He’s distracted by Ari slipping into his lap. He gives her a hug and a kiss on her forehead, “Did you have a good day today?”

She nods against his chest and he adjusts the ribbon in her hair, “did you get everything you wanted?”

She takes a deep breath and Keith can almost feel her shrinking in on herself. He sits her up so he can look her in the eyes, “Hey, what’s wrong? You got a lot of great presents. Was there something else you wanted?”

Ari just shrugs and changes the subject, “Did you see my new shirt papa got me?”

Keith doesn’t remember Lance buying Ari any clothes for her birthday but then again he always did go overboard for her. He just smiles, “You want to show me?”

Ari grins and stands up. She unzips her jacket so Keith can see. It’s a plain white t-shirt and there’s swirly black writing on it. She dutifully pulls the bottom away from her small belly so Keith can read her shirt. His smile falters when he reads her shirt and he has to read it several more times.

My Papa

Wants to know:

Will you marry him?

Keith looks up at Ari and notices Lance to her left and he’s kneeling in front of Keith with a small box in his hand. When the shock wears off Keith launches himself into Lance’s arms. His face is buried in Lance’s neck, “Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes!”

Keith feels a tug on his sleeves and Ari is standing there, “Does this mean you’re gonna really be my dad now?”

Keith pulls her into a hug, “Yes, I’m really gonna be your dad now!”

Ari gives a loud whoop and wraps her arms around Keith’s neck. He can’t help but agree with her when she finally gives a soft sigh, “Finally!”

 


End file.
